Thursday, October 29, 2009

"Saleswoman Kathy Lawlor got into a dispute with her employer four years ago over a big incoming commission, and she said the company fired her when she wouldn't agree to sign a document changing her compensation schedule.

The pay dispute soon wound up in court, and her ex-employer, North American Corp. of Illinois, called a Chicago lawyer to arrange an investigation into Lawlor's activities, reports the Chicago Tribune.

The lawyer called a private investigation company, Probe International. And the then-president of PI, according to court testimony arranged for a third-party vendor to obtain Lawlor's personal phone records by "pretexting"—i.e., pretending to be Lawlor herself, the newspaper recounts.

The lawyer says he knew nothing about the pretexting, which wasn't then illegal. (It is now.) But a Cook County Circuit Court jury nonetheless was sympathetic to Lawlor's invasion-of-privacy claim, awarding her a $1.8 million judgment last month against North American, which says it did nothing wrong, the Tribune recounts. Lawlor testified that discovering her phone records had been obtained by North American made her fearful about her family's safety. She stopped letting her children play in the yard and installed a new security system at her suburban Chicago home.

The pay dispute morphed into a seven-figure invasion-of-privacy claim after Lawlor and a neighbor noticed that a private eye apparently was watching her for hours from a car parked next door. The neighbor saw the driver throw some papers into the trash one day, and mentioned this to Lawlor's father. He pulled some papers out of the garbage can that identified Probe as the company that apparently had been investigating her, and Lawlor took them to her then-lawyer, the Tribune reports.

"The defining moment in the case was when Kathy Lawlor walked into my office and handed me a white envelope with a return address that said 'Probe,' " attorney William Kane tells the newspaper. He sought Lawlor-related records from Probe and, although the company and North American fought the subpoena, claiming the investigation was confidential, Kane prevailed. When the material arrived, it contained pages of Lawlor's phone records.

A Construction Law Attorney Blog post by a lawyer who served on the jury in the case notes that the verdict was comprised of $65,000 in compensatory and $1,750,000 in punitive damages. Lawlor's intrusion-on-seclusion claim contended that North American provided confidential information from her personnel file that Probe used in the pretexting, he notes.

Lawlor, who is now 41, tells the Tribune it is gratifying to have stood up for what was right and won. However, the big-bucks award is not all hers: Her current counsel, Mitchell Katten and Nancy Temple, represented her on a contingency-fee basis, and Kane billed Lawlor $600,000 for his noncontingent representation, the newspaper notes.

A lawyer for North American says the company is fighting the $1.8 million verdict, but declined further comment. The company still has an outstanding claim against Lawlor for allegedly disclosing business secrets to a competitor, which will be decided by Judge Carol Pearce McCarthy."

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Florida Insurance - General - State Regulation TrackingProposed Rules October 02, 2009The proposed rule amendment resolves the problem of paper document processing by requiring all material filed with the Department relating to a Section 624.155, F.S. civil remedy action be filed electronically. The civil remedy notice is already required to be filed electronically. This amendment requires the insurer's report of disposition and other communications, which parties wish to submit, to likewise be filed electronically.2009 FL REG TEXT 185997 (NS)

Health Insurance: N.J. FEDERAL JUDGE WON'T DISMISS SUIT OVER RISING PREMIUMS, Clark v. Prudential Ins. Co., 5 No. 11 Andrews Insurance Bad Faith Litig. Rep. 1, Andrews Insurance Bad Faith Litigation Reporter October 6, 2009A federal judge in New Jersey has refused to dismiss a bad-faith claim filed by a woman whose health insurance premiums soared to more than $50,000 a year after the insurer closed the risk pool on her policy. By "blocking" or closing the insurance product to new customers, the insurer knew it was creating a rising cost spiral that would prevent existing policyholders from maintaining their policies and reaping their benefits, U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise said.

Long-Term-Care Insurance: NO BAD FAITH IN LTC INSURER'S PRICING SCHEME, 8TH CIRCUIT SAYS, Rakes v. Life Investors Ins. Co., 5 No. 11 Andrews Insurance Bad Faith Litig. Rep. 5, Andrews Insurance Bad Faith Litigation Reporter October 6, 2009The 8th Circuit has affirmed summary judgment for an insurance company that was accused of underpricing the long-term-care policies it sold to young, healthy buyers, only to raise rates to unaffordable levels when those policyholders became old and frail. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the policies and marketing language warned buyers that rates could increase.According to the opinion, plaintiffs Robert Rakes and Robert Hollander purchased LTC insurance from Life Investors Ins.

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Friday, October 2, 2009

"The general counsel for Citigroup says his in-house legal department has been battered by the economic downturn, leaving him with little sympathy for law firm arguments for premium fees.

General counsel Michael Helfer, a panelist at an event sponsored by Bisnow, said Citigroup’s in-house legal department has shrunk by about 300 employees over the last few years, many of them felled by layoffs, according to the Washingtonian’s Capital Comment Blog. Compensation for the lawyers who are left has been cut by up to 60 percent.

In such an environment, “The amount of sympathy I have for the argument that $1,000 an hour is a reasonable rate ... is nil,” Helfer said, according to the blog account.

Law firms aiming to please general counsel such as Helfer are agreeing to charge alternative fees. Panelists told of changes. The percentage of revenue from alternative billing is about 10 percent at Arent Fox, about 15 percent to 20 percent at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and about 5 percent to 10 percent at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Even as law firms move to alternative fees, they hope to maintain partner profits that can average more than $1 million a partner. Akin Gump chairman Bruce McLean acknowledged it won’t be easy, the blog says. “It’s a big challenge,” said McLean. “We’re not so good at that yet.” "

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I am a board certified appellate attorney and former chair of the Florida Appellate Practice Section. My firm concentrates on appeals and strategic trial support, to help businesses and individuals keep winning trial level judgments or get reversal of judgments against them. We are regularly asked to co-counsel with attorneys on complex appeals around the country, and admitted to and practice in the Florida and U.S. Supreme Courts, all federal Circuit Courts of Appeals , all Florida District Courts of Appeal, and the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida. When not doing law, I am a dedicated gourmet cook to my family and avid gardener, hiker, horseback rider, and consumer of murder mysteries.

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